Judge Bans Oath Keepers’ Rhodes From DC Without Approval

The federal judge barred Oath Keepers’ founder Stewart Rhodes, and seven other members from the right-wing extremist group, from entering Washington, D.C., despite President Trump’s commutation of their sentences in his sweeping clemency program for those accused of the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021.

Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court, who presided over the Oath Keepers trial, has also prohibited the Oath Keepers from entering the U.S. Capitol grounds or the surrounding area without permission.

The order amending their conditions of release was issued after Rhodes, who had been spotted Wednesday in the Capitol Complex, was set to meet with GOP legislators to advocate for another Oathkeeper’s release shortly after his release from prison.

Rhodes was spotted in the Dunkin’ inside the Longworth House Office Building, but he said that he didn’t actually go into the Capitol Building.

Other Oathkeepers who Mehta banned from Washington and the Capitol included Kelly Meggs and Kenneth Harrelson, who were both tried for seditious conspiracies alongside Rhodes. Roberto Minuta and Edward Vallejo as well as David Moerschel, Joseph Hackett, and Edward Vallejo also faced sedition trials.

Harrelson, Watkins, and others were found not guilty of sedition, but guilty of other felonies. The jury found Rhodes, Watkins, and others guilty of a rare Civil War-era charge that they had plotted to prevent the certification of 2020 presidential elections by force.

Trump commuted their sentences to time served on Monday, and everyone else charged with involvement in the Capitol Riot received a pardon that was “complete, unconditional, and full”.

Mehta, who was sentenced before their release, said that Rhodes’ pardoning, as the founder of the group, “should be terrifying to anyone concerned about democracy in this nation.”

At trial, prosecutors described Rhodes as “the architect and orchestrator of this plan,” using his role in the right-wing group of militias to coordinate Oath keepers from across the nation to gather on the Capitol Capitol that day. He was “a general overlooking the battle” on Jan. 6 as his troops stormed into the Capitol, according to the prosecution.

Rhodes had been sentenced to serve 18 years in prison. Trump revoked that sentence with a stroke of his pen. The leader of the extremist group said on Wednesday that he does not regret his actions which led to his conviction.

“I didn’t go into the Capitol. I didn’t tell anybody else to go inside. We’re here to do security for two permitted events on Capitol grounds,” Rhodes said. “I regret that my guys went in. They blundered in along with everybody else. It doesn’t make them criminals. It just makes me kind of stupid.”

James Lee Bright, his attorney, said previously that he believed Rhodes would receive a pardon in full or succeed on appeal for his sedition conviction.